The Bystander Behavior (For Friends) Scale: Factor Structure and Correlation With Prior Victimization

Development and Validation of the Bystander Engagement Scale for Witnessed Intimate Partner Violence: A South Korean Version

Bystanders play a crucial role in assisting and rescuing victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) or sexual assault, thereby preventing further harm. Consequently, an increasing amount of research has focused on improving bystander interventions in such situations. While many existing scales that measure bystanders' willingness to intervene and their behaviors are likely tailored to Western settings and primarily focused on preventing sexual assaults, pursuing diversity to make these scales applicable to a variety of contexts is necessary. This study aimed to develop and validate a scale from South Korean samples that measure the likely level of bystander engagement in witnessed IPV situations, named the Bystander Engagement Scale for Witnessed Intimate Partner Violence (BESW-IPV). Preliminary items, developed to describe various IPV situations that a bystander might witness, underwent content validity testing through expert review and cognitive focus group interviews. Afterward, the scale was administered to 311 participants from the target population in South Korea. The scale's factor structure was assessed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The reliability and validity were rigorously assessed. The final version of the BESW-IPV comprised 28 items. Through EFA, "direct IPV indicators" and "indirect IPV indicators" were identified. Together, these factors accounted for 76.10% of the total variance. CFA affirmed that the final model offers an acceptable fit. The scale's convergent and discriminant validities were also well established. The Cronbach's alpha and the McDonald's omega values were 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. In contrast to many existing tools that measure bystander intervention predominantly within the confines of Western educational settings, we believe that the BESW-IPV can be applied in broader contexts, especially in patriarchal environments. Further research is required to translate and validate this tool in different cultural contexts.

Bystander Intervention for the Prevention of Campus Sexual Violence: Opportunity, Frequency of Action, and Consequences for Confronting Those at Risk of Perpetration

This cross-sectional study examined students' (Campus 1, n = 1,153; Campus 2, n = 1,113) experiences with four situations of direct confrontation of those at risk for sexual assault perpetration. The most reported opportunity was to confront those making false statements about sexual assault; many students reported more than one opportunity to intervene in the past year. Bystanders intervened most of the time across the four situations examined in this study. The most reported consequence of intervening was that no further harm was caused. More nuanced measures can offer practitioners further information to tailor sexual violence prevention programs.

College Students' Engagement in Violence Prevention Discussions with Peers

The bystander intervention (BI) model recognizes a range of prosocial helping behaviors individuals can perform to support sexual and dating violence (S/DV) prevention efforts. Individuals can demonstrate a commitment to ending violence through proactive BI, such as participating in prevention initiatives or talking with peers about ways to keep safe, which are different than reactive BI behaviors when violence is underway. Given the anchoring of the BI model in Diffusion of Innovation Theory, which articulates the uptake of new behaviors throughout a population or community and the role of change agent aids in that process, investigating demographic, and other individual-level correlates, of proactive behaviors may help identify those students who are particularly positioned to help diffuse and normalize anti-violence behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine (1) the occurrence of students' engagement in peer discussions about violence prevention in the past year and (2) the correlates of reporting to have those discussions among university students in a cross-sectional study implemented on two campuses in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. Results showed that the most common discussion was talking to friends about being safe in dating relationships and the least common was talking with friends about participating in violence-prevention-related activities, with 66.2% and 22.5% having done so, respectively. Women, younger students, and those reporting to know a survivor of either DV or SV were more likely to report having discussions, compared to men, older students, and those not knowing a survivor. Additional relationships were detected between other individual characteristics, knowledge about violence/victimization, and climate-related variables but differed depending on whether participants participated in the DV or SV-related survey module. Findings suggest the need for BI training initiatives to emphasize proactive engagement and peer discussions, and that gender continues to be a robust indicator of violence-prevention actions.

A systematic review of informal supporters of intimate partner violence survivors: the intimate partner violence model of informal supporter readiness

Background

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health issue that consists of physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetrated by a current or former partner. Informal supporters (e.g., family and friends) of survivors are more often witness to IPV or are the first people a survivor will disclose abuse to and are more able to provide consistent ongoing support than professional services. Therefore, greater understanding of informal supporters is warranted to aid in reducing the risks experienced by survivors. This systematic review aimed to: (1) identify factors associated with either an increase or decrease in helping behaviour toward a survivor, (2), identify the most effective self-care strategies employed by informal supporters, and (3) consider the current theoretical approaches used to understand informal supporters help-giving behavioural intention.

Methods

A systematic literature search was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. The search included English language articles published between 2005 and 2021 in the databases Psych Articles, Scopus, Proquest Social Services Abstracts, and Ebscohost. Studies were included if the primary research aims explored the motivators and inhibitors of helping intention or self-care strategies of adult social network members of adult IPV survivors. Two reviewers independently screened all identified articles for inclusion suitability.

Results

One hundred and twenty articles were subjected to full text screening resulting in 31 articles being identified as meeting inclusion criteria. Synthesis of the findings identified the following three key areas associated with help-giving behavioural intentions: normative factors, individual factors, and situational factors. There were no articles identified that considered self-care of informal supporters. Of the 31 articles, 22 had a theoretical underpinning. None of the utilised theories explained all three of the identified factors of help-giving behavioural intention.

Conclusion

These results are integrated into a proposed Intimate Partner Violence Model of Informal Supporter Readiness (IPV-MISR), incorporating the identified factors associated with help-giving behavioural intention. This model provides a framework for conceptualising the readiness of an informal supporter to provide adequate support to IPV survivors. The model extends existing theoretical standpoints and has utility in both practice and research.

The Questionnaire of Intention to Help in VAW Cases (QIHVC): Development and preliminary results

Introduction

Violence against women (VAW) is a worldwide social and health problem of epidemic proportions. This violence is preventable, and bystander programs are one of the possible preventative strategies. The main purpose of this research was to develop a tool that, by applying a contrastive methodology for its application in different forms of violence (forms of gender-based violence, such as intimate partner VAW, sexual harassment at work, and street harassment, and common violence, such as a robbery), would allow measuring the probability of occurrence of bystander response in the face of these types of violence with good evidence of content validity.

Method

Firstly (Study 1), an initial version of a measure tool, the Questionnaire of Intention to Help in VAW Cases (QIHVC), was developed; secondly (Study 2), a Delphi (modified) study was carried out to obtain valid, content-based evidence; and finally (Study 3), a pilot study was carried out to evaluate the appropriate functioning of the QIHVC and, if required, to make any necessary adjustments.

Results and discussion

The main result is the development of a set of case scenarios and a questionnaire related to its content which constitutes the QIHVC and, in its initial approximation, seems to constitute an adequate and sensible tool to capture the differences between the characterizations of common violence and VAW and in the possible response of bystanders in the face of such violence.

Party frequency, party-safety strategies, and sexual victimization among first-year female college students

Objective: This study examined whether the use of party-safety strategies weakens the association between frequency of party attendance and sexual victimization among first-year female college students. Participants: First-year female college students (n = 450) from three universities in the United States participated in this study. Methods: Participants completed questionnaires on frequency of party attendance, use of party-safety strategies, and sexual victimization. Results: Frequency of party attendance was positively associated with sexual victimization. This association was moderated by use of party-safety strategies: frequency of party attendance was unrelated to sexual victimization when students reported greater use of party-safety strategies. However, frequency of party attendance was positively related to sexual victimization when students reported lower use of party-safety strategies. Conclusions: Teaching and reinforcing party-safety strategies may be helpful additions to efforts to prevent sexual victimization on college campuses.

Correlates of Bystander Intentions and Behavior among Community College Students in Situations of Sexual Violence

Sexual violence (SV) is a public health problem on college campuses. Research suggests that bystanders can effectively prevent and respond in situations of SV. There is no research to date concerning correlates of bystander behavior (e.g., gender, perceptions of SV) on community college campuses. However, there are notable differences between students enrolled in two- and four-year colleges. We conducted two exploratory studies across seven community colleges in one northeastern state to examine correlates of bystander intentions and behavior. In Studies 1 and 2, the majority of respondents identified as women, heterosexual, and White. We administered online surveys that inquired about demographics, peer attitudes, knowledge of sexual consent, history of victimization, and intent to help (Study 1) or self-reported bystander behavior (Study 2). The first study (n = 1,067) demonstrated that gender (i.e., identifying as woman), less accepting peer attitudes toward SV, and greater knowledge of sexual consent and awareness of campus SV were significantly associated with bystander intentions. The second study (n = 1,506) indicated that age (i.e., younger than 25 years old), greater knowledge of sexual consent, and victimization history were associated with bystander behavior. Implications for research and practice are discussed.